WESTFIELD – The Gaslight District Project is anticipated to begin in earnest next week as the coordination effort to minimize the disruption of city services to downtown residents and business progresses.
City Engineer Mark Cressotti said the $5.9 million Gas Light District Improvement Projec, anticipated to begin in June, will pick up steam.
“It’s been a really slow start because we’re trying to be surgical out of sensitivity to residents and businesses downtown,” Cressotti said. “Every week for the past month we’ve been told it will start next week. We’ve been told, again, it will begin next week.”
The Gas Light District is the neighborhood between Elm and Washington streets and between Court and Franklin streets. The project will upgrade infrastructure to improve the quality of life for residents within the district.
The project is also intended to position the city for economic development downtown. Cressotti said the present infrastructure is inadequate to support economic development and in many cases is failing, which has a direct impact on residents in the district because of interruption of water and sewer services.
“What is unusual is that we’re replacing the sewer lines. The city doesn’t typically do that, but in this instance we have to take out and replace those lines because there is significant inflow and infiltration of ground water,” Cressotti said. “There is also an issue of asbestos pipes sitting in high ground water.”
The city has allocated $3.3 million to replace sewers in the district. City Engineer Mark Cressotti requested the use of the city’s Inflow & Infiltration (I&I) account funds to replace the existing sewer infrastructure, some of the oldest sewers in the city, and to perform associated work to tie buildings and homes into the new sewer system.
The Board of Public Works voted in May to award the contract to Gagliarducci Construction Inc. of Springfield. The contractor will replace water and sewer lines, as well as bury overhead utilities and repave streets and off-street parking lots in the neighborhood designated as the Gas Light District.
“There are a lot of stakeholders, residents, building owners, businesses, even the city’s off-street parking because those lots between Franklin and School streets are all be reconfigured and being paved,” Cressotti said. “That area accounts for most of the downtown parking.
“So we’re making a major effort to reduce disruption,” Cressotti said. “And without the Business Improvement District helping with that coordination, it makes it a major project.”
Cressotti said that problems arise over simple issues, such as providing water to buildings while water mains are being replaced.
“Do we shut down a restaurant for two or three days because we can’t get water to them?” Cressotti said. “Who do we talk to, the building owner or the business owner, to work out a solution?”
The current and future use of buildings in the district is also an issue because of the need to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act access requirements for sidewalk construction and ramps. The city’s goal is to enhance pedestrian movement in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods abutting Elm Street.
Sidewalks will be installed with pump-outs to increase pedestrian safety.
The Gaslight District project also includes construction of two small, urban pocket parks, green oases in a jungle of concrete and asphalt. One proposed park will be constructed in an existing parking area off Church Street, while another is planned in the Arnold Street parking lot along the new access road.
The Westfield Gas & Electric Department has already initiated replacement of gas lines and will be involved, with other telecommunication companies, when some of the overhead lines are buried as part of the project’s beautification efforts.
